BEIJING, October 8, 2017
Rafael Nadal claimed his 75th career title, moving to within two of John McEnroe for fourth on the Open Era list. The top seed from Spain beat Nick Kyrgios 6-2, 6-1 in Sunday’s final of the China Open in Beijing.
Nadal saved all four break points he faced, capitalizing on four of his own to secure victory in one hour and 32 minutes. It was Nadal’s second triumph in Beijing, having previously defeated Guillermo Coria for the 2005 trophy. The Spaniard’s victory marks the 12th time a player has won an ATP World Tour title after saving match point(s) this year. He had denied two against Lucas Pouille in a first-round thriller.
“It is an important title for me. The last year that I had the trophy with me was in 2005. I had very tough draw here. When I saw the draw at the beginning of the tournament, I knew that it will be very, very difficult to have good chances here. But I was lucky the first day saving the two match points. After that, I think I played one of the best events of the year, playing very solid the whole week and playing against very tough opponents,” Nadal said.
Nick Kyrgios moved to 15th position in the Emirates ATP Race To London, following his second final appearance of the season.
“I put in a pretty good week, had some good wins. It’s tough to find positives when you won three games in the final. But I guess there were positives. In the semi-final I played well, obviously beating Alex [Zverev],” Kyrgios told.
Kontinen/Peers Prevail
Henri Kontinen and John Peers continued their dominant run in ATP World Tour doubles finals, improving to 8-1 as a team. The pair defeated US-Americans John Isner and Jack Sock 6-3, 3-6, 10-7 in one hour and nine minutes.
The No. 2 team in the Emirates ATP Doubles Race To London, the Finnish-Aussie duo pull to within 760 points of Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo for the top spot.
“All the tournaments we play are tough fields. It’s a third title for us this year. Not as many as last year, but I feel like we’re playing even more solid. To get another one in the bag is great,” Kontinen said.
“It’s definitely great to get the win here in Beijing. It’s been a great first week in Asia and it’s definitely nice to get one back on Jack and John, after losing in the final in Shanghai last year. We always know it’s a really tough match,” Peers added.
